Got my Lumia 800 and am loving it but when using earphones and playing music I hear an annoying hissing / white noise in the background. The noise starts just as your about to play music and stops a few seconds after pausing music. Anyone else getting the same or is my product faulty?

I was using the Nuforce NE-7Ms which are a headset obviously not supplied by Nokia. Tried with some Goldrings and the hissing is still there but to a much lesser degree. I wouldn't notice it when using the phone in public but in a quiet place I do. Is it normal to have a small amount of this white noise? I do not get it when using the onboard speakers.

Make sure your audio is of high enough quality. I.e a 96kbps/128kbps and even 192kbps has some significant 'hiss' (for me anyways). Try load a lossless format on it, see if you get any hissing. Or a 320kbps mp3 file let's say (still lossy but much higher quality).

Am convinced it is not the quality of the audio as it continues after the music stops.

Just to clarify, I can actually hear the white noise / interference / hiss / pops / clicks (whatever you want to call it!) through the onboard speakers if I listen very carefully. Most noticeable once music stops playing as it continues for approx 2 seconds (I suppose when the audio processor stops sending data to the speaker). When listening through headphones, easiest way to hear it is to set volume to 0, and start playing a tune. I can hear it throughout.

It might, but most decent mobile DAC internally don't process above 600kbps or so (at least the zune HD does around there), though a bad studio also might use audio sources not upto the quality.

But I think there is noticeable noise with decent cans, even on a good audio source, at least with my ATH-M50s in a quiet area. Audio set to 5/30. It's noticeable every once in a while. Just a little bit of hissing after a song ends, and a little pop before the hissing stops. I'm using CD lossless rips (Zune converted to 256/320k) of Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, and Eminem CDs, for reference. If it was something like a recent Metallica CD, I'd blame it on the studio for sure :P.

Its nothing to do with the quality of the audio. You hear it when you are dialling numbers, when playing music, videos or any other time the sound card is activated. Its particularly annoying with quiet music or audio. I've tried several of my earphones and the loudness of the hissing (which also contains pops and even some mechanical sounds) varies on them. With my Nu-force NE-7Ms in-ear buds it is very distinguishable (something to do with the fact that it is a headset?) whilst with Goldrings earbuds and Sennheiser headphones less so.

Have to say aside from the ****e battery this is the most disappointing feature of the phone. I went back to Carphone Warehouse to see if it was just my unit but other stock had the same problem. What was interesting was that I was pretty sure the demo unit had the problem but to a lesser degree. The store clerk said that demo units usually have less software activated etc. Hoping it is therefore not a hardware issue but rather one that Nokia can fix with a firmware upgrade. Either way will need to make a decision soon as to whether I can live with it or exchange it for an iPhone.

I can confirm that I hear a clicking noise when changing tracks.. or when the audio stops as well (just before the hissing ends)... must be some kind of noise cancellation that is causing a spike. In my Omnia 7, I get the hiss all the time.

I have the Titan and I also get audio pops between songs. I turned off sound enhancement to minimize the problem but it's still there. Strange it's happening on multiple devices. Maybe MS changed something in the minimum specs that is causing this.

I have the Titan and I also get audio pops between songs. I turned off sound enhancement to minimize the problem but it's still there. Strange it's happening on multiple devices. Maybe MS changed something in the minimum specs that is causing this.

yeah, I'm back on my old Focus, and the pop+hiss during any audio playback is nearly not present anymore (not only that, in GeoDefense, the audio doesn't clip anymore!).

Either MS changed something, or the 8255t SoC has something that disagress with our devices :(

Same here on an 8X: hiss in the background, clipping on low volume. Pretty annoying, but I guess it's something HTC/MS should be able to fix with a software update. I reported the issue to my local (Dutch) HTC twitter support, will try some other channels as well.